A Prank for the Masters
by KeepSmiling1
Summary: Fred and George want to prank, do something that will make them known...too bad the Marauders have done everything first. Love Potion Prompt combined with 2nd Year Twins


A/N House/Team: Badgers. Class Subject: Charms. Story Category: Standard. Prompt:[Object] A love potion. Word Count: 1032 AN2 Takes place in the Twins' second year.

Fred and George Weasley were in their second year and had big aspirations. While other Gryffs were worrying about tests or _shudder_ getting noticed by this girl or that boy in time for the Valentine's Day Ball, they were more focused on pulling off the perfect prank. There was only one problem - The Marauder's Map.

Everytime the Twins would come up with a grand idea in the presence of the activated Map, Padfoot or Prongs' handwriting would describe how _they_ had done it. Fred and George weren't above using this function to recreate great ideas that they otherwise wouldn't be able to do as second years, but they wanted to be known for chaos that they had created themselves not just for recreating great pranks of the past.

"Invisible robes?" Fred suggested hopefully. _That was a tricky prank. It took Moony nearly three months to get the right set of spells. First you have to…._

"Really? Are there any pranks they didn't do?" George exclaimed exasperatedly. They had been at it for a few hours, and all of the really epic ideas seemed to have been done before. Oh for some of them, they could probably come up with a different way to get the same effect, but that wasn't the goal. There seemed to be nothing new under the shine of the most excellent Marauders.

"All of our ideas are things we would mostly do with wands right, George?" Fred asked, a glimmer of an idea beginning to form.

"Yeah course they are. The fine art of prank magic requires quite a lot of intelligent wand magic, you know." George replied, parodying their favorite vic-teacher's introductory speech.

"What if we use potions in our most masterful prank?"

_Potions? Bleh! Only greasy slime balls make potions in their FREE time! _Padfoot and Prongs' script added to the discussion.

"Since our goal is to be as good as or better than the Marauders, dear brother, I think this utterly insane idea of yours has merit indeed!" George responded eagerly.

-PftM-

Lee Jordan inadvertently helped the brothers come up with the perfect prank potion.

"Ella is beyond beautiful guys. Not only that, she giggled when we saw each other in the hall. Her eyes are the brightest, most amazing eyes I've ever seen...if only she would go to the ball with me, I'd be the happiest bloke in the whole school!" Jordan finally finished his monologue on the many positive attributes of Ella MacEntire, a third year who he had a giant crush on.

Fred looked at George. George looked at Fred. This...had potential.

The problem with love potions wasn't that they were difficult to make though this was definitely true. No, the problem was making them in a sanitary environment to avoid contamination. Each potion requires a hair (or nail or scrap of skin...blood was also a possibility) from the individual who the drinker was to fall in love with. Unfortunately, second years aren't really taught about the importance of a sterile environment in class, and their recipe didn't feel the need to explain such a fundamental aspect of the brewing process. The results were...interesting. Ella did indeed fall in love with Lee Jordan in time for the ball. She just also started stalking the Weasley twins. She wasn't the only one to mysteriously fall for the them either. In a fit of genius, the boys had created enough potion to dose half the school with this or that love interest. Sure all their victims fell under the spell enough to love this or that rival; they just also were in love with the twins.

"Isn't Filch dreamy? I love how he cleans! I'd love to get a detention with him and the Twins!"

"Filch? Bleh! A detention with the Twins and Oliver Wood however…"

"You're a Slytherin! I can see wanting to be locked in a closet with the Twins, House pride be damned, but Wood? You couldn't pay me enough! Penelope Clearwater, on the other hand…."

The Weasley twins were not ashamed to say that they _might _have hid away for a bit in the aftermath of their epic prank. An incident with "Accio Fred Weasley's robe" sparked their name change from Fred and George to Gred and Forge.

All the teachers knew who had created all the mayhem due to their sudden popularity. This sparked an impromptu lesson by Snape on the importance of a sterile work environment with a 30 point deduction. If he slowly...over the course of three months happened to give the brothers 32 points for a potion well-made, it was purely coincidental. If DADA just happened to spend a week on how to test for potions, a skill normally taught to fifth years, well that was purely due to the addlebrained nature of their senile professor. Even Binns' lessons on the goblin wars brought up an incident of cross-species weaponization of love potions. After a month without continued dosing, everyone turned back to normal with a certain healthy respect for the potential insanity that could be caused by two second year Gryffindors. Pranks in retaliation were the name of the game for the last few months of the school year much to McGonagall's dismay and Dumbledore's delight.

When Gred and Forge got off the Hogwarts Express that year sporting a rainbow of colors in their hair, Molly was appalled. Their grins as they decreed their year an overwhelming success was more than slightly terrifying.

"What did you learn this year, boys?"

"A clean environment is vital for making potions correctly!"

Never before had a clean bedroom from her sons resulted in an increase of explosions.

-PftM-

The memories of the Marauders that fueled the writing on the Marauder's Map might never agree with the use of potions in proper pranking, but even they had to admit that none of their pranks had caused mayhem for a month! While the infamous Love Potion Prank of 1990 had its flaws, it was ultimately the prank behind all of their most famous concoctions like the Canary Cream or Ton Tongue Taffy. Who knew love potions could be so important in the history of pranking?


End file.
